What a variety of illustrious visitors may fancy summon up and set down in this ancient mansion. At one time the illustrious Franklin, seated in the parlour, upon seeing Gen. Pierre van Cortlandt, (then a boy,) walk in with a handfull of prickly pears, requested a iew of the pins as he was shortly going to France and would like to exhibit in that country pins of domestic manufacture.

At another, we have the neighboring toi^antry assembled on the lav/n, while the eloquent Whitfield addresses ir.em from the piazza.

The year preceding the commencement of hostilities betwa;*^ the mother country and her colonies. His Excellency, William Tryon, and suite, paid an unlocked for visit here, of which Gen.

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. Ill

Philip van Cortland t thus speaks : " I remember Governor Try on came in a vessel bringing his wife and a young lady, who was a danghter of the Hon. John Watts, a relation of my father, and Col. Edmund Fanning, his friend and secretary; and after remaining a night, he proposed a walk, and after proceeding to the highest point of land on the fiirm, being a height which affords a most delightful prospect, when the governor commenced with observing what great favors could be obtained if my father would relinquish his opposition to the views of the king and parliament of Great Britain, what grants of land could and would be the consequence, in addition to other favors of eminence, consequence, cfcc. My father then observed that he was chosen a representative by the unanimous approbation of a people who placed confidence in his integrity to use all his ability for their benefit and the good of his country as a true patriot, which line of conduce he was determined to pursue. The governor then turned to Col.