A short distance below the Asylum for the Insane, on the east side of the Blooming-dale Road, is the fine old country seat of the Apthorpe family, called Elm Park. It is now given to the uses of mere devotees of pleasure. Here the Germans of the city congregate in great numbers

ASYLUM FOE THE INSANE.

during hours of leisure, to drink beer, tell stories, smoke, sing, and enjoy themselves in their peculiar way with a zeal that seems to be inspired by Moore's idea that --

' Pleasure's tlie only noble end, To which all human po\Yers should tend."

Elm Park was the head-quarters of Sir "William Howe, at the time of the battle on Harlem Plains, in the autumn of 1776. "Washington had occupied it only the day before, and had there waited anxiously and

THE HUDSON.

impatiently for the arrival of the fugitive Americans under General Putnam, who narrowly escaped capture when the British took possession of the city. The Bloomingdale Eoad, along which they moved, then passed through almost continuous woods in this vicinity. Washington himself had a very narrow escape here, for he left the house only a few minutes before the advanced British column took possession of it.

Elm Park, when the accompanying sketch was made (June, 1861),

was a sort ol camp of instruction for volunteers for the army of the Bepublic, then engaged in crushing the great rebellion, in favour of human slavery and political and social despotism. "When I visited it, companies were actively drilling, and the sounds of the fife and drum were mingled with the voices of mirth and conviviality. It was an hour