At one time
mining operations were conducted at this point, but they came to
naught, and now the town is noted as a resort for guests of the state.

[Sidenote: _BLACK HORSE TAVERN._]

As we approach the Croton River the road takes a right-angled turn,
down which a fingerboard points, indicating that Peekskill lies that
way, but the old Post Road kept straight ahead, following the banks of
the Croton until a favorable place for crossing occurred, when it took
advantage of the opportunity and started back for the Hudson, in order
to get around Hessian Hill. The marshy breadth of the Croton's mouth
was probably too much for the bridge builders of early days. Along
this road a short half mile is the one-time celebrated Black Horse
Tavern. It was not only a house of refuge for travel-worn humanity,
but was also a popular meeting place for the neighboring farmers, and
a place of political gatherings.

[Sidenote: _VAN CORTLANDT MANOR._]

We stick to the more modern road which crosses the Croton by means of
two bridges landing one at the door yard of the old Van Cortlandt
manor house. The view up the river from the bridge is a beautifully
soft landscape. On the left stands the old "ferry house," so important
a means of communication between the two sides of the stream that
Washington, during the Revolution, stationed a guard here for its
protection. The manor house, a modest two-story building, hidden in
vines, built of the rough brown sandstone of the region, gives no
indication of decrepit age. It so happened that just before my visit
its stucco covering had been removed, disclosing to view the portholes
for musketry intended to discourage the too enthusiastic approaches of
its Indian neighbors. This stucco was spread over the building when
the grandfather of the present generation of Van Cortlandts brought
his bride home.

The father of the first "Lord of the Manor" was a landholder in the
City of New Amsterdam, owning a tract along Broadway where now is
Cortlandt St. The son was the first mayor of New York born in America;
this was Stephanus Van Cortlandt. He advanced large sums of money to
the government, and as compensation obtained, in 1697, a Royal charter
for "Lordship and Manor of Cortlandt." The present building is thought
to have been started by Gov. Thos. Dongan, about 1683, as a hunting
lodge, an ideal situation on the bank of the Kitchawar, as the Croton
River was then known, protected alike from the north