Notwithstanding the disparity of numbers was great, and the measure absolutely necessary, it was with the utmost reluctance they retired to the pass. As usual, these heroes of Britain have burnt so.:.e houses, plundered the inhabitants of what they could conveniently take with

158 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

them, frightened the women and children, and raised the spirits of their tory hrethren in that quarter; but which, alas, as is always the case when unnaturally elevated, are now again proportionally depressed."

The old oak tree east of the Van Cortlandt residence, served the purpose of a military whipping post.

Upon the summit of a high knoll, south-east of the late residences of Gen. Pierre Van Cortlandt, stands the old parochial church of St. Peter in which occasional services are held. Adjoining it on the north-east is the Cortlandt cemetery, facing the Westchester and Dutchess county Turnpike.

A short distance from Cortlandtville, near Locust avenue is "Rest Hill," upon the summit of which the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher is now erecting a splendid stone residence. From this point a most magnificent view is obtained of the village of Peekskill in the gorge below, the . mountains bounding the horizon on three sides and the Hudson winding like a tangled belt of silver at their bases. Northward the hill falls precipitously into the valley, and through that valley winds the Annsville creek and Canopus or Sprout brook. On a green slope, really about three miles distant, but apparently almost at the foot of " Rest Hill," is the old church of St. Peter's, just alluded to and the cemetery.