Reminiscences of Saratoga, Mr. William L. Stone quotes the " Interesting narrative of a visit to the ' High Rock Spring ' in 1 789, a little more than twenty years after Sir William Johnson's visit . . . taken down from the lips of Mrs. D wight, by .taf^- .V LOOKING DOWN RIVER, NEAR TROY her son, the Hon. Theodore Dwight." This account of the condition of Saratoga and the route thither is so graphic that our only apology in making the following excerpts is that we cannot quote it entire: Our party originally consisted of five, three gentlemen and two ladies, who travelled with two gigs (then called chairs) and a saddle-horse. From Hartford, where I resided, our party proceeded west- ward, and some idea of the fashions may be formed from the dress of one of the ladies, who wore a black beaver with a sugar- loaf crown eight or nine inches high, called a steeple-crown, wound round with black and red tassels. Habits having gone out of fashion, the dress was of London smoke broadcloth, but- toned down in front, and at the side with twenty-four gilt but- tons, about the size of a half dollar. Large waists and stays were the fashion and the shoes were extremely sharp-toed and high-heeled, ornamented with large paste buckles jat the instep. Digitized by Microsoft® Above Tide- Water 553 . . We hardly met any one on this part of the way, except an old man with a long, white beard, who looked like a palmer on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and his wife, who was as ugly as one of Shakespeare's old crones. . After three days we reached Hudson, where a gentleman who had come to attend a ball joined our party, sending a message home for clothes; and, although he did not receive them and had only his dancing dress, persisted in proceeding with us. He mounted his horse therefore in a suit of white broadcloth, with powdered hair, small clothes, and white silk stockings. Could anything be more delightful than this instan- taneous photograph of a beau of a hundred and thir- teen years ago, whose abounding spirits and love of adventure were not to be held in check by such trifles as white broadcloth, powdered hair, and silk small- clothes ? But to continue : While at Hudson it was determined to go directly to Saratoga, the efficacy of the water being much celebrated as well as the curious round and hollow rock from which it flowed. Hudson was a flourishing village, although it had been settled but about seven years, by people from Nantucket and Rhode Island. In the afternoon the prospect of a storm made us hasten our gait and we tarried over night at an old Dutch house, which, not- withstanding the uncouth aspect of a fireplace without jambs, was a welcome retreat from the weather. Early in the morning we proceeded and reached Albany at breakfast-time. The old Dutch church, with its pointed roof and great window of painted glass, stood at that time at the foot of State Street. At Troy, where we took tea, there were only a dozen houses, the place having been settled only three years before by people from Killingworth, Say brook, and other towns in Connecticut. Lansingburg was an older and more considerable town, contain- ing more than a hundred houses, and inhabited principally by emigrants from the same State. The tavern was a very good one, but the inhabitants were so hospitable to our party that the Digitized by Microsoft® 554 The Hudson River time was spent almost entirely in private houses. After a delay of two nights and a day we proceeded on our journey. Crossing the Hudson to Waterford by a ferry, we went back as far as the Mohawk to see the Cohoes falls, of which we had a fine view from the northern bank, riding along the brow of the precipice in going and returning. On the road to the Mohawk we met a party of some of the most respectable citizens of Albany — among whom was the pa- troon Van Rensselaer — in a common country waggon without a cover, with straw under their feet and wooden chairs for seats. Two gentlemen on horseback, in their company, finding that we were going to Saratoga, offered to accompany us to the scene of the battle of Behmus Heights, and thither we proceeded after visiting, Cohoes. We dined in the house which was General Burgoyne's head- quarters in 1777 and one . of the females who attended us was there during the battle. Mr. Stone, in a footnote, corrects this statement, averring that General Burgoyne's headquarters were "on high ground, the present [1875] farm of Mr. Wil-