This family descends from Richard Ward, son of Edmund Ward of Fairfield, Connecticut.^ General Ward's residence is a fine building of Sing Sing marble, presenting a neat Ionic portico to the river, with wings on either side. The interior is embellished with several excellent pictures by native artists, viz.. Falls of Niagara, by Yanderlyn ; St. Nicholas, by Weir ] Boy hoeing corn, by Mount ; Village of Sing Sing, by Havel ; Gipsey Girl, by Freeman ; View in New- Hampshire, by Doughty ; Girl and Child, by Chapman. The family portraits are by Ames, Vanderlyn, and Gilbert.

One of the most striking features of this hilly region is the romantic ravine (already alluded to) intersecting the village; both sides of it are bounded by steep acclivities covered with a luxuriant growth of hemlock and spruce, and near its mouth the banks rise to a height of one hundred feet above the bed

* During the last war with Great Britain General Ward held a captain's commission in the United States' service, and at the close of it conducted a battalion of 700 British prisoners from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to Canada.

b Moses Ward married a niece of Col. Samuel Drake of the continental army.

e The old stone fortress stood a little east of Mr. H. K. Forster's dwelling liouse. "* d See Eastchester, p. 159,

502 HISTORY OF THE

of the stream. In the vicinity of Brandreth's mill the Croton aqueduct crosses this ravine by means of a handsome arch constructed of solid masonry, in the most durable manner. The space between the abutments is 88 feet, and the rise from the bottom of the creek is about 100 feet. So securely were the foundations of this noble structure laid, that upon the removal of the uprights the whole work settled but one inch.