In the retreat of the robbers, they pitched thelieadless body of their slain comrade, into the adjoining well. This tragical event has given rise to strange stories ; and has thrown over this spot a veil of horror; which is heightened by the loneliness of it? situation. Some benighted countryman has construed the gnarled and fantastic cedars, (which surround this spot,) into the headless form of the cowboy seated on the well, and the sweeping blast, or gurgling brook, into his doleful groans. The common

« Simcoe's iNlilit. Journal, p. 77.

Vol. U. 55

4af ■ HISTUKY OF THE

people slill regard this place with superstitious dread, no one daring to approach it after dusk,

Valentine's hill, is a high ridge bordering the Mile square on the west ; its summit affords one of the finest views in West Chester County. To the east the eye ranges over an extensive country of hills, woods and vales, stretching towards the Long Island Sound, the distant horizon skirted by light blue hills. To the north lie the Tnckahoe hills, while westward the view is bounded by the Yonkers ridge surmounted with lofty woods, with here and there a glimpse to be obtained of the dark palisades peeping through some opening of the trees ; below Hes a beautiful vale through which Meanders Tippets brook. At the base of the hill winds the Croton Acqueduct.

Valentine's hill and adjoining property has been occupied by the ancient and numerous family of the Valentines for nearly one hundred and twenty years. The ancestor of the family Matthias Valentine, having been one of the first tenants under the Philipses ; on his settlement here the whole surrounding country was one vast forest, the lonely domain of the deer. The verges of these forests also abounded with another noble species of game long since extinct, and that was the wild turkey.