within her borders, on the banks of the lordly Hudson, and that sunny, facile intellect which dwelt in the pure and lofty brow of Washington Irving found equal delight in exploring the mystic nooks and windings of its " Sleepy Hollows." Fenimore Cooper, the great pioneer of American fiction, roamed over its rugged hills and through its pleasant meadows, and treading close upon his heels came James Kirke Paulding, Irving's friend and collaborateur, whose strong Americanism was quite as pure and unadulterated as was that of the patriotic Cooper. Among political writers, Westchester presents the great names of Hamilton, Tom Paine, Seabury, Wilkins, the Jays, Gouverneur Morris, Daniel

LITERATURE AND LITERARY MEN.

D. Tompkins, John Bigelow, Horace Greeley, James Watson Webb, besides a host of lesser celebrities.

George Washington, tliough not, projierly si)eaking, a literury character, deserves to be included among those who have transmitted noble tlioughts as well as noble deeds to his countrymen. His association with the people of Westchester County during the Revolutionary era is fully set forth elsewhere in this work. Among his writings are to be found vivid bits of description of AV^estchester localities, with which he became familiarized in passing through tlie county. The Sparks collection of Washington's writings fills twelve large octavo volumes. His first ap[)earance as an author was in the publication, in 1754, at Williamsburg, Ya., and in London, of his journal of his proceedings " To and from the French of the Ohio," a brief tract written hastily from the rough notes taken on his exjjedition. His State papers, correspondence and " Farewell Address " are too well known to need description here. Major John Andre, whose mournful fate is indissolubly linked with the glorious deeds of Washington, spent the closing days of his career in Westchester. He was a poet as well as a soldier and an accomplished man of letters.