The grounds ran down to the water's edge, and were laid out after the approved EngHsh fashion of the day, with stately terraces and parterres of flowers. Kennedy was the son of the Hon. Archibald Kennedy, Receiver General under British rule, and he afterwards became by inheritance the eleventh Earl of Cassalis. His son, born in the old house at No. i, was afterwards Marquis of Ailsa. The Kennedy house was famous for the magnificence of the entertainments given there. A parlor fifty feet long, with a banqueting hall of equal size and grand appointments, made this old mansion one of the notable ones of the Colony. Afterwards the Washington Hotel occupied the place of the Kennedy house, and now the Field Btiilding, erected by C3TUS W. Field, lifts its bulk on that historic site. Before the War for Independence Lieutenant-Governor James de Lancey owned a large and handsome house on Broadway. This was another of the wellknown homes of New York, where the wealth and fashion of the day used to enjoy a hospitality that was princely, and the fame of which was not confined to one side of the Atlantic. It was the favourite meetingplace for British officers during the war, and was the scene of the great ball given on May 7, 1789, in h(jnour of Washington's Inauguration. John Peter de Lancey sold the property to a

New Buildings and Old 35

syndicate composed of Philii) Li\'ingst()n, Gulian Verplanck, Ivloses Rogers, and others, in trust for subscribers to the "Tontine hotel and assembly room." The price paid was six thousand pounds, New York currency. This compan}' pulled down the de Lancey house and built in its stead the City Hotel, that long