the high margin of the stream, to the Van Cortlandt Manor House, passing the old Ferry House on the way, where a party of New York levies, under Captain Daniel "Williams, were surprised by some British horsemen in the winter of 1782. At the entrance gate to the mansion grounds, at twilight, I met Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, the present proprietor, and accepted his cordial invitation to partake of the hospitalities of Jfiis house for the night.

(The Van Cortlandt Manor House stands near the shore of Croton Bay. It was erected at the beginning of the last century, by John Van

THE HUDSON.

Cortlandt, eldest son of the first lord of the manor, and is now more than one hundred and fifty years old. Orlofi' Stevenson Yan Cortlandt, father of the first proprietor of this estate, was a lineal descendant of the Dukes of Courland, in Russia. His ancestors emigrated to Holland, when deprived of the Duchy of Courland.) The family name was Stevens, or Stevensen, van (or from) Courland. They adopted the latter as a surname, the true orthography of which, in Dutch, is Korte (short), and

^^m A

VAN CORTLANDT MANOE HOVSE.

landt (land), a term expressing the form of the ancient Duchy of Courland. Orloff emigrated to America, and settled in Xew Amsterdam (New York), and in 1697 his son Stephen purchased the large estate on the Hudson, afterwards known as the Yan Cortlandt Manor. By intermarriages, the Yan Coi'tlandts are connected with nearly all of the leading families of New York -- the Schuylers, Beekmans, Yan Renselaers, De Peysters, De Lancys, Bayards, &c. The Manor House was built of heavy stone ; and