, I
think, is a mistake, as all of the professors at West Point were too
loyal to Mr. Gouverneur Kemble to allow wild rumors engendered by war to
remain uncontradicted.

This seems a fitting place to recall the pleasant friendship I made with
General Robert E. Lee long before he became the Southern chieftain. I
have already stated that when I visited Cold Spring in other days he was
Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. He was a constant visitor
at the Kembles, and his imposing presence and genial manner are so well
known as to render a description of them altogether superfluous. Some
years later when I was visiting at the home of General Winfield Scott in
Washington I renewed my pleasing friendship with him. There existed
between these two eminent soldiers a life-long attachment, and when the
Civil War was raging it seemed almost impossible to realize that Scott
and Lee represented opposite political views, as hitherto they had
always seemed to be so completely in accord.

The Cold Spring colony was decidedly sociable, and a dinner party at one
of the many cottages was almost a daily occurrence. Captain and Mrs.
Robert P. Parrott entertained most gracefully, and their residence was
one of the show-places of that locality. I have heard Captain Parrott
facetiously remark that he had "made a loud noise in the world" by the
aid of his guns.

The first time I ever saw Washington Irving, with whom I enjoyed an
extended friendship, was when he was a guest of Gouverneur Kemble. The
intimate social relations existing between these two friends began in
early life, and lasted throughout their careers, having been fostered by
a frequent interchange of visits. In his earlier life Mr. Kemble
inherited from his relative, Nicholas Gouverneur, a fine old estate near
Newark, New Jersey, which bore the name of "Mount Pleasant." Washington
Irving, however, rechristened the place "Cockloft Hall," and in a vein
of mirth dubbed the bachelor-proprietor "The Patroon." Irving described
this retreat in his "Salmagundi," and the characters there depicted
which have been thought by many to be fanciful creations were in reality
Gouverneur Kemble and his many friends. His place was subsequently sold,
but the intimacy between the two men continued, and it has always seemed
to me that there was much pathos connected with their friendship. Both
of them were bachelors and owned homes of more than passing historic
interest on the Hudson. Irving