broad, and the staircase capacious and massive. The rooms are large, and the ceilings are lofty; all the rooms are wainscoted, and the chief apartment has beautiful ornamental work upon the ceiling, in high relief, composed of arabesque forms, the figures of birds, dogs, and men, and two medallion portraits. Two of the rooms have carved chimney-pieces of grey Irish marble. The guest-chamber, over the drawing-room, is

handsomely decorated with ornamental architecture, and some of the fireplaces are surrounded with borders of ancient Dutch tiles. The well has a subterranean passage leading from it, nobody knows to where; and the present icc-house, seen on the right of the picture, composed of huge walls and massive arch, was a powder-magazine in the "olden time." Altogether, this old hall-one of the antiquities of the Hudson-is an

attractive curiosity, which the obliging proprietor is pleased to show to those who visit it because of their reverence for things of the past. It possesses a bit of romance, too; for here was born, and here lived, Mary Philipse, whose charms captivated the heart of young Washington, but whose hand was given to another, as we shall observe hereafter.

In the river, in front of Yonkers, the Half-Moon, Henry Hudson's

exploring vessel, made her second anchorage after leaving New York Bay. It was toward the evening of the 12th of September, 1609; the explorer had then been several days in the vicinity of Man-na-hat-ta, as the Indians called the island on which New York stands, and had had some intercourse with the natives. "The twelfth," says "Master Ivet (Juct) of the Lime House," who wrote Hudson's journal, "faire and hot. In the

afternoon, at two of the clocke, wee weighed, the winde being variable, betweene the north and the north-west. So we turned into the Riuer two leagues, and anchored. This morning, at ovr first rode in the Riuer, there came eight-and-twentie Canoes full of men, women, and children, to betray vs; but we saw their intent, and suffered none of them to come abord of vs. At twelue of the clocke they departed; they brought with them Oysters and Beanes, whereof wee bought some. They have great tobacco-pipes of Yellow Copper, and Pots of Earth to dresse their meate in." That night a strong tidal current placed the stern of the Half-Moon up stream. That event, and the assurance of the natives that the waters northward, upon which he had gazed with wonder and delight, came from far beyond the mountains, inspired Hudson with great hope, for it must be remembered that his errand was the discovery of a northern passage to India. He now doubted not that the great river upon which he was floating flowed from ocean to ocean, and that his search was nearly over, and would be speedily crowned with success.

A mile and a half below Yonkers, on the bank of the Hudson, is Font Hill, formerly the residence of Edwin Forrest, the eminent American tragedian. The mansion is built of blue granite, in the English castellated form, a style not wholly in keeping with the scenery around it. It would have been peculiarly appropriate and imposing among the rugged hills of the Highlands thirty or forty miles above. The building has six towers, from which very extensive views of the Hudson and the surrounding country may be obtained. The flag, or stair tower, is seventyone feet in height.

To this delightful residence Mr. Forrest brought his bride, Miss Catherine Sinclair, daughter of the celebrated Scotch vocalist, in 1838, and for six years they enjoyed domestic and professional life in an eminent degree. Unfortunately for his future peace, Mr. Forrest was induced to visit England in 1844. He was accompanied by his wife. There he soon became involved in a bitter dispute with the dramatic critic of the London Examiner, and Macready the actor. This quarrel led to the most serious results. Out of it were developed the mob and the bloodshed of what is known, in the social history of the city of New York, as the "Astor Place Riot," and with it commenced Mr. Forrest's domestic

troubles, which ended, as all the world knows, in the permanent separation of himself and wife. Font Hill, where he had enjoyed so much happiness, lost its charms, and he sold it to the Roman Catholic Sisters of

Charity, of the Convent and Academy of Mount St. Vincent. This institution was founded in 1847, and the academy was in 105th Street, between the Fifth and Sixth Avenues, New York. It is devoted to the instruction

of young ladies. The community, numbering about two hundred Sisters at the time of my visit, was scattered. Some were at Font Hill, and others were at different places in the city and neighbourhood. The whole were under the general direction of Mother Superior Mary Angela Hughes. At Font Hill they erected an extensive and elegant pile of buildings, of which they took possession, and wherein they opened a schcol, on the

1st of September, 1859. It was much enlarged in 1865. They had, in 1860, about one hundred and fifty pupils, all boarders, to whom was offered the opportunity of acquiring a thorough education. The chaplain of the institution occupies the "castle."

Two miles and a-half below Font Hill, or Mount St. Vincent, is Spyt den Duyvel Creek, at the head of York or Manhattan Island. This is a