Opposite the camp, and on distinct eminences, stood the tents of some of the general officers over which towered predominant that of Washington. I had seen all the camps in England, from many of which drawings and engravings have been taken ; but this was, truly, a subject worthy of the pencil of the first artist. The French camp, during their stay in Baltimore, was decorated in the same manner. At the camp at Verplanck's Point we distinctly heard the morning and evening gun of the British at Kingsbridge."

Curiosity seizes with avidity upon any incidental information which fills up the bare outline of history. The personal history of Washington more particularly, wherever it has been traced by those who were in contact with him, is full of interest. Some of the sketches given by the Marquis of Chastellux, who passed this point of the Hudson on his way to Washington's head-quarters below, are very graphic :

" The weather being fair on the 26th," he says, "I got on horseback, after breakfast, with the General. He was so attentive as to give me the horse I rode on the day of my arrival. I found him as good as he is handsome ; but, above all, perfectly well broke and well trained, having a good mouth, easy in hand, and stopping short in a gallop without bearing the bit. I mention these minute particulars, because it is the

HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

General himself who breaks all his own horses. He is an excellent and bold horseman, leaping the highest fences, and going extremely quick, without standing upon his stirrups, bearing on the bridle, or letting his horse run wild ; circumstances which our young men look upon as so essential a part of English horsemanship, that they would rather break a leg or an arm than renounce them.