It v/as connected with the tragical story of the unfortunate Andre, who had been made prisoner hard by, and was universally known by the name of ' Major Andre's tree.' The common people regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition, partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, and partly from the tales of strange sights, and doleful lamentations told concerning it." It was while passing beneath this whitewood tree that Ichabod Crane, in his midnight career toward Sleepy Hollow, "suddenly heard a groan, his teeth chattered, and his knees smote against the saddle. It Avas but the rubbing of one huge branch upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him. About two hundred yards from the tree, a small brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly u'ooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's Swamp.

spirit, to meet his doom. On the top of the sarcophagus, a figure of Britannia, reclining, laments the premature fate of so gallant an officer. The British lion, too, seems instinctivelv to mourn his untimely death.

230 HISTORY OF THE

A few rouo:h logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grape vines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. It was at tiiis identical spot that the unfortunate Andre was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised him. This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has to pass it alone after dark."a