The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester (1881 revised edition, Vol. I)

Their enclosures were burnt, where they were capable of becoming fuel ; and in many cases thrown down, where they were not. Their fields were covered with a rank growth of weeds and wild grass.

"Amid all this appearance of desolation, nothing struck my eye more forcibly than the sight of the high road. Where I had heretofore seen a continual succession of horses and carriages, life and bustle -- lending a sprightliness to all the environing objects -- not a single, solitary traveller was seen, from week to week, or from month to month. The world was motionless and silent, except when one of these unhappy people ventured upon a rare and lonely excursion to the house of a neighbor no less unhappy; or a scouting party, traversing the country in quest of enemies, alarmed the inhabitants with expectations of new injuries and sufferings. The very tracks of the carriages were grown over, and obliterated ; and where they were discernible, resembled the faint impressions of chariot wheels said to be left on the pavements of Ilerculaneum. The grass was of full height for the scythe ; and strongly realized to my own mind, for the first time, the proper import of that picturesque declaration in the Song of Deborah : 'In the days of Shamgar, the son of Anath, in the days of Jael. the highways were unoccupied, and the travellers walked through by-paths. The inhabitants of the villages ceased; they ceased in Israel.' "<*

a American Scenery, by Bartlett and Willis.