" It is alleged that the body of the trooper having been buried in the church yard, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle, in nightly quest of his head, and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the hollow, like a midnight blast, is owing to his being belated and in a hurry to get back to the church yard before daybreak."
iSuch is the general purport of this legendary superstition. The spectre is known by the name of the " Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.''^
The bridge so famous in goblin story, crossed the hollow, a few yards east of the present structure, the road having been altered within a few years.
A little north of Sleepy Hollow church, lies the Beeckman forest, an extensive tract of woodland, ranging principally east and west of the Albany post road. These woods formerly covered a much larger district of country, and abounded in fine timber; while the thickets and glades, served as a favorite haunt for large herds of wild deer. The perpetual harassing of this noble game, in spite of fines and imprisonment, has long ago exterminated the whole race in this county, in the year 1705, (to prevent if possible, their entire destruction,) it was enacted by the governor council and general assembly, " that whosoever within the county of Westchester, Christian or Indian, freeman or slave, after the first day of January, which will be in the year of our Lord, 1705,