The Romance of the Hudson -- Benson John Lossing

purposes by the public authorities of Yonkers. The more ancient part was built soon after the purchase of the property in 1682. There the Hon. Frederick Philipse, of a noble Bohemian family, and second lord of the manor, lived in almost princely style after the house assumed its present shape and size in 1745. Its rooms are large and wainscoted; its ceilings are high, and the whole interior shows tokens of wealth and taste. In the drawing-room, the ceiling of which is ornamented with arabesque-work, the charming Mary Philipse, daughter of Lord Frederick, was married to Captain Roger Morris, already mentioned, in January, 1758.

That wedding was a pleasant romance of the Hudson. The leading families of the province and the British forces in America had representatives there. The sleighing was good and the weather was mild. So early as two o'clock in the afternoon the guests began to arrive. The Rev. Henry Barclay, rector of Trinity Church in New York, with his assistant, Mr. Auchmuty, was there at three o'clock. Half an hour later the marriage was solemnized under a crimson canopy, emblazoned with the golden crest of the family (a crowned demi-lion, rampant, rising from a coronet), in the presence of a brilliant assembly. The bridemaids were Miss Barclay, Miss Van Cortlandt, and Miss De Lancey. The groomsmen were Mr. Heathcote, Captain Kennedy, and Mr. Watts. Acting Governor De Lancey (son-in-law to Colonel Heathcote, lord of the manor of Scarsdale) assisted at the ceremony. The brother of the bride, the last lord of the manor, decorated with the gold chain and jeweled badge of office of his family as keeper of the deer forests of Bohemia, gave away the bride, for her father had been dead seven years. Her dowry in her own right was a large domain, plate, jewelry, and money.

A grand feast followed the nuptial ceremony, and late on that brilliant moon-lit night most of the guests departed. While they were feasting, a tall Indian, closely wrapped in a scarlet blanket, appeared at the door of the banquet ball, and with measured words said, "Your possessions shall pass from you when the Eagle shall despoil the Lion of his mane." He as suddenly disappeared. His message was as mysterious as the writing on the wall at Belshazzar's feast. The bride pondered the ominous words for years; and when, because they were royalists in action, the magnificent domain of the Philipses was confiscated by the Americans at the close of the Revolution, the significance of the prophecy and its fulfillment were manifested. Such is the story of the wedding as told by Augevine (son of the favorite colored valet of Philipse), who was sexton of St. John's Church at Yonkers for forty-five years.

The first building erected by Philipse on his estate is yet standing at the month of the Pocanteco Creek, just north of the village of Tarrytown. It is a strong stone