after the troublesome experiences of the war, when their vessels had been captured and destroyed and their liberties menaced by the British enemy, they must have experienced great satisfaction in finding so safe a retreat ; but it is also to be believed that to eyes accustomed to the unmitigated sand and unrelieved levels of Cape Cod, the green and fertile billows of the landscape that lies between the river and the " Katz- bergs" must have been like a vision of Paradise. Hudson has attracted several artists of repute — in- deed, has been the birthplace of more than one of the school that it was the fashion a few years ago to refer to slightingly as "Hudson River." Church and Gif- ford lead the list of those who have been honoured among American painters. The first steamboat owned in Hudson was the Legis-^ lature, built elsewhere, but purchased by a Hudson firm in 1828 for towing purposes. Before that date all of the traffic had depended upon sail propulsion. One can hardly realise to-day how considerable that trade was ; for while Hudson is still a place of many factories and some business activity, it no longer holds the prominent rank it once did among the river towns. Claverack Creek enters the river a short distance north of the old city. Its name is derived from Klauver Rack, which is the Dutch for Clover Reach. Athens, a thriving little town that was first named Lunenberg and Digitized by Microsoft® 5o8 The Hudson River afterwards Esperanza, is opposite Hudson and con- nected by ferry with its more opulent vis-h-vis. The high hill to the south of Hudson is Mount Merino, and nearer at hand, within the city, Prospect Hill affords an outlook that embraces at once the Catskills, the Green Mountains, the Luzerne range, and the Hud- son Highlands. The whole neighbourhood of this maritime city of the inland waters is hilly and excep- tionally beautiful, while the quiet, tree-shaded streets are marked by a sedate New England air. The family names in the directory are mainly those that have been familiar since the founders brought with them the energy, the conscience, and the thrift that built the town. There is to-day a conservatism that distin- guishes the manners and public acts of the inhabitants of this pleasant city; it is, perhaps, a reminiscence of Quaker habits of thought and speech. We may only conjecture how rudely this spirit must at times be shocked by the unguarded humour of aliens. A hundred and fifteen years ago the Gazette of Hudson published, in May, the following news item: "Robert White was married to Betsie Harris on Tuesday, May ist. Who was brought sick on Wednesday, delivered of three children on Thursday, who all died on Friday and were buried on Saturday." And still the local authorities are uncertain whether this astonishing state- raent may be classed as a piece of reprehensible pleas- antry or a dispensation of Providence. It will at least interest the student to learn that at such an early Digitized by Microsoft® Nantucket Quakers and Dutch Fighters 509 period in its civic history, Hudson enjoyed the then rare distinction of pubHshing a Gazette devoted to local affairs. A few miles south of Htidson, at Linlithgo, is the point where Hudson anchored the Half-Moon, and, upon the 17 th of September, sent his boats exploring among the islands and shoals of the upper reaches. In an opposite direction is Kinderhook {Kinder' s Hoeck), where the numerous progeny of the first settler so swarmed about the water's edge when the trading boats went by that the skippers could think of no more appropriate name than this. The present village is not on the river shore, bvtt is reached from Stuyve- sant landing. The Kinderhook Creek, a picturesque little stream, finds its wa}' to the Hudson at Columbia- ville, about midway between Stuyvesant and the county seat. At Kinderhook, in his country seat, Lindenwald, Martin Van Buren kept open house for his political friends. The house was built b}' Judge William P. Van Ness, the intimate associate of Aaron Burr and his second in the duel which resulted in the death of Alexander Hamilton. Washington Irving was a guest at Lindenwald during one period of which we have record, and not improbably at other times. He is said to have made there the acquaintance of the school-teacher, Jesse Merwin, who is credited with be- ing the original of the character of Ichabod Crane in the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Referring to this, Digitized by Microsoft® 5IO The Hudson River Mr. Harrold Van Santvoord, the author of Half Holidays, wrote, in 1898: After the Sketch-Book was published it was feared that the caricature of Ichabod Crane would occasion strained relations between