Within the mansion are collected some exquisite works of Art, and family portraits extending in regular order back to the first Patroon. At the head of the great staircase leading from the spacious hall to the chambers was a portion of the illuminated window which, for one hundred and ninety years, occupied a place in the old Dutch Church that stood in the middle of State Street, at its intersection by Broadway. It bears the arms of the Van Rensselaer family, which were placed in the church by the son of Killian.

That old church, a sketch of which, with the appearance of the neighbourhood at the time of its demolition in 1805, is seen in our picture, was a curiously arranged place of worship. It was built of stone, in 1715, over a smaller one erected in 1656, in which the congregation continued to worship, until the new one was roofed. There was an interruption in the stated worship for only three Sabbaths, It had a low

\AN EFNSSEI

THE HUDSON.

gallery, and the huge stove used in heating the building was placed upon a platform so high, that the sexton went upon it from the gallery to kindle the fire, implying a belief in those days that heated air descended, instead of ascending, as we are now taught by the philosophers. The pulpit was made of carved oak, octagonal in form, and in front of it was a bracket, on which the minister placed his hour-glass, when he commenced preaching. From the pulpit shone in succession those lights of the Eeformed Dutch Church in America, Dominies Schaats, Delius, the land speculator, Lydius, Vandriesscn, Yan Schie, Frelinghuysen, Wcsterlo,