y of Ric

were not past, I could find he

ting from Richmond

o a shrine of romance rather than religion. I meandered along Canal, and traversed Co

on of Charlton and Varick streets and the end of Macdougal, about two hundred feet north of Spring. And there w

the Café Gorizia (with windows flagrant with pink confectionery), and t

f war-inflamed suspicion, and I desisted and fled. How was I to tell them that there, where I stood, in that very citified and very nearly squalid

-way had curved in between the tall, fretted iron posts, to that lovely wooded mound which was the last and most southern of the big Zantberg Range, and seemingly of a rare and ri

escribed by an eyewitness as "a wooden building of massive architecture, with a lofty portico supported by Ionic columns, the front walls decorated with pilasters of the same order and its whole appearance distinguished by a Palladian character of rich though sober ornament." We learn further that its entrance w

cing prospect; on the south, the woods and dells and winding road from the lands of Lispenard, through the valley wher

owed through the site of Washington Square, made a large pond at the foot of Richmond Hill,-somewhere about the present junction of Bedford and Downing streets. In winter

e written by good Mistress Abigail, wife of John Adams, one-time vice-president of the United

t hand are fields beautifully variegated with grass and grain, to a great extent, like the valley of Honiton in Devonshire. Upon my left the city opens to view, intercepted here and there by a rising ground and an ancient oak. In front beyond the Hudson, the Jersey shores present the exuberance of a rich, well-cultivated soil. I

L. Booth, commenting

trikes the prosaic mind familiar with the locality at the present day as a trick of the

back to the

arish. St. John's,-not built at that time, of course-is part of the same property. This particular portion (Richmond Hill), as we may gather from the enthusiastic accounts of those who had seen it, must

ires and, upon it, high above the green valleys and the silver pond, he proceeded to put a good part of his co

ys, in all things social as well as governmental. He proceeded to entertain largely, as soon as he had his home

, for he called it Richmond Hill to remind him of England. The people of New York used to gossip excitedly over the small fortune he spent on those grounds, the house was the most pr

gton Square as it is today-our little and dear bit of fine, concr

gns waged against French power in America. He is really not so well known as he should be, for in those tangled beginnings of our country we can hardly overestimate the importance of any

orable year 1776, General Washington made "the Hill" his headquarters, and the house built by the British arm

fling interest if not actual romance attaches itself automatically to the bare utterance or inscription of his name,-Aaron Burr. He was aide-de-camp to General Putnam

e most striking figures in American history, and I imagine that I have not been the first dreamer of dreams and writer of books w

is frantic rush to the colours, guardian or no guardian; of the steel in him which lifted him from a bed of fever to join the Canadian expedition; of his daring exploi

theatre in our imaginations. Just one incident comes to me at this moment. It is so closely assoc

out Grand Street), known as "Bunker's Hill"-not to be confounded with the other and more famous "Bunker"! It happened to be a singularly unfor

the little force understand the danger of their position, pleading with his inimitable eloquence and advancing the reasons for their retreat at once. The men were stubborn; they did not want to retreat. But he talked. He proved that the English could take the scrap of a

eloquence, his good sense, his leadership and his unquesti

upon Richmond Hill. During the ensuing struggle, and before the formal evacuation of New York, the house is supposed to have been occupied off

ngs in regard to Richmond Hill. She was, in fact, never tired of writi

this

the wanderer r

beauties; each

ture, new, and

shing stream. Birds of all sorts were plentiful, and the Adamses did their best to preserve them on their own place. But too keen sportsmen were always stealing into the Richmond Hill grounds

one moment that this was at

than a Roundhead. John T. Morse, Jr., says that the Vice-president liked "the trappings of authority." The same historian declares that in his advice to President Wa

e an interesting account of Richmond Hill as he personally recalled it. He draws for us a graphic p

ng. Dinner was served in a large room on the second floor with Venetian windows and a door opening out onto the

e fashion of Versailles. Opposite sat Mrs. Adams, with her cheerful, intelligent face. She was placed between the Count du Moustier, the French Ambassador, in his red-healed shoes and earrings, and the grave, polite, and formally bowing Mr. Van Birket, the learned and able envoy of Holland. There, too, was Chancellor Livingston, then still in the prime of life, so dea

was a day of trenchermen, and only serious illness kept people from eating their dinners. At last the door opened and his own private chef,-quaintly described by Verplanck as "his body-cook,"-rushed into the room pushing the waiters right and left before him, and placed triumphantly upon the table an

t that excellent housewife and incomparable hostess, Mistress Adams, was not en

liarly succinct way one of the most signal charact

in Europe is the work of centuries." A shrewd and happily tongued observer,

a brilliant social nucleus. Washington and his wife often went there to call in their beloved post-chaise, and there was certainly no dignitary of the time and the place who was not at one time or another a guest

but the grand and sublime

a large quantity of money and valuables while at the Hill, that the thieves were never discovered and that for this reason at least he filled the local press for quite a time. His occupancy seems to have been short, and, save for the robbery, uneventful (if he really

the bye? They are so quaint, so human, so tender-I believe that you will agree with me that such reading has more of charm in it than the most dramatic modern novel. They bemoan their aches and pains and cheer each oth

." When their letters do not arrive promptly they are in despair. "Stage after stage without a line!" complains Theodosia the mo

! He advises her to write a little smaller, and says he loves to hear from her. Then he whimsically reproaches her for not say

he is said to have been beautiful, brilliant and fascinating even from her babyhood, and certainly the way in which she took

tably open to the expatriated aristocrats during the French Revolution. Volney stopped with him, and Talleyrand, and Louis Philippe himself. Among the Americans his most constant guests were Dr. Hosack, the Clintons, and, oddly enough, Alexander Hamilto

e or ease one would have expected from so experienced a soldier, but he had "great authority of manner," and was uniformly "courtly, witty and charming." During one of those legal

y and can find extenuation for anything and e

conversation; gifted with a charm of manner that was almost irresistible; he was the id

rofoundly fascinating to women. It is doubtful (in spite of his second marriage at seventy odd) if he ever loved an

y quaint incident during the very first year

rl behind in a more or less remote country place with a small army of servants under her and full and absolute authority over them and herself! But I take it that there are not many modern little girl

s a dig

ator, and Burr took a great fancy to him. The Chief had adopted an American name,-Joseph Brant,-and had acquired quite a reputation. He was en route for Washington, bu

etter

t one of those Indians who drink rum, but is quite a gentleman; not one who will make you fine bows, but one who understands and practises what belongs to propri

d to entertaining, she so far had encountered no savages, and, in common with most young people, she thought of "Brant" as a fierce barbari

she admitted that she had been paramountly worried about what she ought to give him

als that eac

phagi, and m

eath their

iously was intended as a touch of grisly humour,-had half a notion to procure a human head an

d the wit and good taste to include in her dinner party such representative men

cally about the Indian Chief, and declared him to have b

ounsel of older members of her sex. That she was extravagantly popular with men old and young is proved in many ways. Wherever she went she was a belle. Whether the male beings she met chanced to be young an

gate in the harbour one day, and warned

illery, "you must bring none of your sparks on board! Th

f more than a thousand slaves, and at one time governor of his state. Though she went to the South to live, she never could bear to sever en

n house, since it was in spring, and before the country places would naturally be open. At all events it w

ultivated fields and gardens, the neat, cool air of the cit's boxes peeping through straight rows of tall poplars, and the elegance of some gentlemen's seats, commanding

e this chapter is the story of Richmond Hill and not the life of Aaron Burr, I sh

and shadow-flinging portico, its gardens and its oak trees and its silver pond-it was of small import that the master just missed being President of the United States, that he did become Vice-president, and President of the Senate, and that he was probably as able a jurist as ever distinguished the Bar of New York; also that he made almost as many ene

once go forth with him to battle, and welcome him home. I can conceive of some hushed and gracious home-spirit walking restless by night because the heart and head of the house was afar or in danger. And

amilton, as a statesman, believed that Burr was dangerous; and so he was: sky rockets and geniuses usually are. Hamilton did his brilliant best to destroy the other's

aughty, courteously insolent, utterly unyielding on

nd's rice fields at that time. She worshipped her father, an

s seconds left our beautiful Richmond Hill, where the birds were singing and the

came Hamilton with his seconds, and the surgeon, Dr. Hosack. The distance was

e when they please. If one fires before the other, the opposite sec

ton dropped. Burr was untouched. He stood for a second looking at his fallen adversary,

amilton personally. I wonder how many times he paced the cool dining-room with the balcony outside,

sack to inform him of the present state of General H.,

nd at home, that he may repeat his enquiries. He would take it very kind if the

h, the New York

hand to inscribe, have we to annou

ear of his age, in the full vigour of his facu

pp, writing in 1835, and evidently a somewhat prejudiced friend, says that "t

out, for he knew that popular feeling was, in the main, against him. Dark times for the househo

him on the Hudson just below his Richmond Hill estate, with a discreet crew. They rowed all nigh

usual sang-froid, and suggested nonchalantly that he had "spent t

s a matter of fact, verdict or no verdict, the matter of Hamilton's death was never followed up. Burr came calmly back to the Capitol and finished his term as Vice-president. In his fa

s throw from the site of the onc

d himself as President. Mexico was in it too. In fact, President Jefferson himself wrote of the project: "He wanted to overthrow Congress

all about it. The sum of the matter is that he was tried for treason, and that, though he was acquitted, he was henceforward completely dead politically. Through all, Theo stood by him, and

and, and let Richmond Hill be sold to John Jacob Astor by his creditors. It brought only $25,000, which was a small sum compared

comforting to read, dropped down, as it is, in the middle of s

home from Albany and stopped at a roadhouse at Kingston. While he was eating and drinking and the horses were being changed, he s

a wagon-maker, and had absolutely no prospects nor any hope of cultivating his undoubted talent. Like any other boy young and poor and in a position so humble as to of

mind, just put a clean shirt in your pocket,

ce and the whole episode from his mind, g

imself at the front door and insisted on seeing Colonel Burr, in spite of all the resistance of his manservant. At last he succeeded in forcing his way past, and made his appearance in the breakfast-room, f

re generously when he chose, and he lost no time in sending Vanderlyn to Paris to study art. So brilliantly did the young man acquit himself in the ateliers there that within a ve

sant part of this litt

nating, and at one time the most courted of men, lived and moved without a friend. And he met Vanderlyn,-once the wistful lad who drew pictures when his master wanted him to turn spokes. Now Vanderlyn was a b

found? He was penniless. Well, the money was found quite easily. Vanderlyn made a pile of all his best canvases,

nd perplexities and mistakes than any other man, but he was fiercely reticent on the subject. Once a writer approached Vanderlyn for some special info

private life," he insi

turned on h

private life alo

ding that he certainl

South Carolina, to meet her father in New York. He had been gone years, and she was hungry for

at she had been captured by the pirates that then infested coastwise trade. So Theodosia-barely thirty years old-vanished from the world so far as we may know. The dramatic and

th distinction and success on Nassau Street, even made a second marriage very late in life, but I think some vivid,

ck, for a few moments

an eccentric. Our old friend Verplanck says that he himself dined there once with thirteen others, all speaking different languages.... "None of whom I ever saw before,"

issioner-like best to cut the town all to one pattern. Of course they couldn't, quite, but the effort was of lasting and painfully efficacious effect. They could not find it in their hearts, I suppose, to raze Richmond Hill House completely,-it was a noble landmark, and a home of memories which ought to have given even commissioners pause,-and maybe did. But they beg

ose to the present crossing of Hudson and Spring streets. And-Richmond Hill did not escape! It too became a tavern, a pleasure resort, a "mead garden," a roadhouse-whatever you choose to call it. It, with its contemporaries, was the goal of ma

dashing along the causeway over Lispenard's green meadows, while the silvered harness of the horses and the brilliant varnish of the Ita

lific writings, covering everything he saw in the course of his work; indeed one wonders how he ever had time to work at all at his profession! Among hi

nwich, as far as Varick Street where the excavations for St. John's Church were then being ma

that time under cultivation, and remote from any dwelling-house now remembered by me except Colonel Aaron Burr's former country-seat, on elevated ground, called Richmond Hi

n a beautiful country world, but out on swiftly growing city blocks. In 1831, a few art-loving souls tried to found a high-class theatre in

"poetical address on the occasion,"-that is, the opening of the theatre. The judges and contestants sat in one of the histor

can tell us of this at first han

pened into evening, the shadows of departed hosts and long-forgotten guests

ne Halleck; and it was not at all a b

opera, in which Daponte was enthusiastically interested, Adelaide Pedrotti was the prima donna. And one of New York's first "opera idols" sang there-Luciano Fornasari, g

playhouse, which was not even successful. The art-loving impresarios spent the

n sensible Mrs. Adams dream dreams, and where Theo Burr had entertained her I

It was pulled down, and they built red-brick houses on

hadows of Richmond Hill. All that remains of them are a few fleeti

ance must leave something behind it other than a few fleeting memories and a page or two of history. Houses have ghosts as well as peop

pon the air above Charlton and Varick streets,-its white columns shining through all the m