This, however, did not satisfy her ; so the next day, when walking with me in Broadway, she espied him in a shop ; she seized my hand, and darting in, exclaimed in her bland Scotch, -- ' Please your excellency, here's a bairn that's called after ye ! ' General Washington then turned his benevolent face full upon me, smiled, laid his hand upon my head, and gave me his blessing, which," added Mr. Irving, "I have reason to believe has attended me through life. I was but five years old, yet I can feel that hand upon- my head even now." Mr. Irving's last and greatest literary work was an elaborate life of Washington, in five octavo volumes.^

We have observed that the Fo-can-ie-co, flowing through Sleepy Hollow, spreads out into a pretty little lake above an ancient and picturesque dam, near the almost as ancient church. This little lake extends back almost to the bridge in the dark weird glen, and furnishes motive power to a very ancient mill that stands close by Phjlipse Castle, as the more ancient manor-house of the family was called. >iie first lord . jof an extensive domain is-- thi«- -vieinity, purchased from the Sachem ^ Goharius, in 1680, and which was confirmed by royal patent the same year, was a descendant of the ancient- Yiscounts Felyps, of Bohemia, who took an active part in favour of John Huss and Jerome of Prague. Here, at the mouth of the Po-can-te-co, he erected a strong stone house, with port and loop holes for cannon and musketry, and also a mill, about the year 1683. Because of its heavy ordnance, it was called Castle PhilipseJ At that time the extensive marsh and meadow land between it and the present railway was a fine bay, and quite large vessels bore freight to and from the mill.